Townsman Andyr raised this question with me last week concerning J. Geils Band, a long-time, hard-working, journeyman, Boston party rock band best known for its Jagger-esque frontman and energetic live shows but always underachieving in the studio that suddenly turned out two albums of polished, radio-friendly hits.
At first I dismissed my friend’s suspicions as the result of the dangerous practice of mixing love for rock ‘n roll with love for baseball. Over the next few days, however, I went searching for possible ties to members of J. Geils Band and performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Although the band was tight with San Francisco promoter Bill Graham and played the Fillmore West numerous times, I did not find any ties to the Bay area’s nascent BALCO labs scene. J. Geils himself was always a sturdy looking guy, but judging by estimates of his head size over the years, there were no changes. In fact, with one exception, each member of J. Geils Band seemed to maintain a pretty stable Look and role within the band.
Is it a coincidence that the band’s brief, meteoric rise to the top of the charts coincided with keyboardist Seth Justman‘s bid for dominance in a band named after a founding member, led by the charismatic Peter Wolf, and featuring sharp-dressed, immaculately mustachioed sidemen Magic Dick and Danny Klein? Justman would take over as the band’s producer, giving the band a pumped up, modern sound it had never demonstrated in the past.
The band’s sound wasn’t the only thing pumping up, as Justman started wearing sleeveless t-shirts, to better show off his guns! At the same time he reduced the volume of his Jewfro to compensate for his growing skull. Shortly after the band arrived as “home run hitters,” the skinny, peskty Wolf was booted from the band. Sounds like the result of ‘roid rage to me.
Should the RTH Rock Crimes Commission open an investigation on other rock artists suspected of using PEDs? Let us know who’s on your radar. Don’t worry: the outside world cannot follow this thread. We’ll keep these investigations completely confidential.
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Springsteen.
In his early career, he was skinny little shore rat and the songs on his first two albums were kind of loose and sprawling. Then, things began to change, and not for the better. The songs, the performances and the band itself got much more precise and muscular, and not in a good way. Check out a picture of him from the Born in the USA tour and compare it to the picture on the back of Wild and Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. I think that he even took to making muscleman poses on stage during that tour.
Perhaps this Faustian bargain was necessary for his to achieve the level of success that he has enjoyed, but if you ask me, Vinnie Mad Dog Lopez dodged a bullet when he got the heave-ho from that band.
Glen Frey did commercials for his new found “healthy lifestyle” didn’t he?
Hard Rock to Rock Hard – holly cheese!
Then he did “You Belong To The City” and “The Heat is On” … I can only blame the drugs for these songs
http://www.eaglesfans.com/info/articles/living_right.htm
Springsteen never smoked, drank or used drugs. He got into weight lifting as a way to kill time on the road (can’t see him playing golf, can you??) There is a basic gym in every hotel and a serious gym in every town (especially in the era of mega-gyms like Golds and LA Fitness) Plus the 3 hour show takes some serious stamina.
Thanks for bringing this forward, Mr Mod. This is a very important topic. The integrity of the charts must be maintained!!
Henry Rollins for sure. Especially if he points his finger at a camera and says he positively, absolutely never did.
Not that she’s rock, but I bet Madonna was getting them from A-Rod.
CDM
“Perhaps this Faustian bargain was necessary for his to achieve the level of success that he has enjoyed, but if you ask me, Vinnie Mad Dog Lopez dodged a bullet when he got the heave-ho from that band.”
perfect!
I believe somebody on this board, some time ago, was bringing up Bob Mould in this context…